Bernabe Buscayno

Bernabe Buscayno (1944-) was the founder of the New People's Army, the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Biography
Bernabe Buscayno was born in 1944 in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines to impoverished tenant farmers. His mother and sister both died, and the father put him up for adoption; he worked as a cane cutter before leading an uprising to increase wges; at the age of 17, he was welcomed into the Communist Party of the Philippines. On 29 March 1969, he became commander of the party's armed wing, the New People's Army, in their guerrilla struggle against the government. By the 1980s, there were 26,000 members of the army, and in September 1976 Buscayno was captured. After the 1986 People Power Revolution of Corazon Aquino, he was released from prison, and he survived a few assassination attempts. Buscayno became the owner of the Tarlac Integrated Agricultural Modernization Cooperative, promoting the mechanization of farm work.